Issues of “life” and “death” for patients receiving palliative care—comments when confronted with a research tool

Abstract

The existing construct of an increased DhD may benefit from a further differentiation between "non-acute" and "acute." In addition, it could be helpful to conceptualize "will to live" and "desire for death" not as polarities from one dimension (two sides of the same coin), but to think them as two independent dimensions.

A consensus review on the development of palliative care for patients with chronic and progressive neurological disease

“…Patients and families may wish to discuss hastened death – by euthanasia or physician‐assisted suicide (, Class IV). In the Netherlands up to 31% of people with ALS consider euthanasia or physician‐assisted suicide, although 69% of these people follow this through (, Class IV).…”

Validation of the German version of the Schedule of Attitudes Toward Hastened Death (SAHD–D) with patients in palliative care

“…Spontaneous reactions from the patients were additionally recorded as field notes (Voltz et al, 2011). The reasons for exclusion were documented.…”

“…The results have been published (Voltz et al, 2011). The data were analyzed using SPSS w software (version 15.0).…”

Assessment of the wish to hasten death in patients with advanced cancer: A comparison of 2 different approaches

“…In fact, even in the specialized context of PC, where emotional problems at the end of life are addressed routinely, the WTHD is rarely explored or assessed . In fact, assessing the WTHD may not be emotionally bothersome for patients, but the importance of this assessment, or whether it may actually be beneficial, is as yet unknown.…”